New Garden Help!

Hi all,

I’ve just moved into a new house with a nice back garden. Apart from a bit of decking it’s all grassed, but I have a small hill to the left which I’ve tried to include on some attached photos.
I’m at a loss what I can do here to make it look good. I don’t have the time really to move all the soil and level it off this year anyway.
so does anyone have any ideas they could share with me to make this area look better?
Many thanks Paul

 

Hello Paul, welcome to GC The two primary questions are: does that bank get sun or is it shady, and what is the soil like? If it's sunny and not pure clay, bung some geotextile (weed-suppressing membrane) over it and plant prostrate Rosemary, Lavender, shrubby Salvia and Cistus through holes. The shrubs will cover the membrane in no time.
If it's mostly shady, ditto the membrane and plant Sarcococca, Lonicera nitida, Heucheras, Ferns, Vinca minor, Hardy Geraniums, Violets...there's lots of choice It's worth burying a cut-off fizzy-pop bottle as a sort of funnel next to newly-planted shrubs and perennials on a slope. Water into them for at least the first summer. The water gets to the roots instead of just running off.

 

Hi @Paul Blundell , welcome! The slope looks full of potential, a change of level is always more interesting than a flat square.

What are your plans for the rest of the garden? Plenty of plants or something easy to keep tidy? What do you like?

A membrane with trailing/ creeping plants through it is a good idea. Depending on the light and moisture conditions, there are a lot of plants to choose from. Being so close to the house, something with a year round interest would be good. Evergreen, relaxed or trailing shrubs with flowers come to mind, but shrubs are slow growing so the display would take a year or two to start looking good. A fix for the first years is to grow fast growing fillers that may or may not stay once the main plants have matured.

Nastrutiums are a quick fix to cover large areas this summer, and won't break the bank when grown from seeds. Trailing Petunias might also look spectacular but you'd need a fair few. Dense planting will look much better than lonely plants dotted here and there.

I must confess I'm totally biased , but a slope almost calls for a water feature. A pond under the slope and something on the top to create an illusion of a stream... lovely A water feature is a more-effort solution, but could look very good and sort of "give a purpose" for the slope.

 

My mentor did something similar to Selleri's suggestion on a sloping bank....she re-created a 'wave' of blue and bluey-green, low-growing shrubs and perennials with a white crest along the top to imitate the sea. It's not easy to get a continuous succession of flowers, so foliage plays a big part too, but it's an idea?